Ever had galling when sizing a cast or coated bullet? The force required just gets higher and higher even when using a strong single stage press.
Try taking approx 500 bullets in a container and put a short spray of Dillons' case lube across them.
Shake well and then size them all with almost no effort. Bullets that are 5 thou oversize (or more) also cause no headaches.
Jim

It depends on what cartridge you are using. I run 9x23 with gen1 STI magazines and it seems to be the only combination that is perfect for my IPSC use.
I don't need baseplates as I am restricted to 170mm magazine length. Grams springs and followers resulted in nose dives on all of my magazines.
The cheap standard STI follower which raises the bullet nose and has no gap to the second round is perfect for me.

Why can't a gunsmith machine a spacer ring that is 3.70mm long and sweat it into the forward part of the chamber?
No new barrel, comp or fitting. I would just recut the lead into the new spacer.
One of our club members ran 9mm in a Caspian 38 super for years and had no problems. His spacer was made out of brass.
Even if there was a failure of the spacer at some point in the future, the 9mm would still fire until a new spacer was inserted.

I see that the STI Trubor barrel and compensator in both T1 and T2 have been discontinued by the factory. This info is on the Brownells site.
The STI replacements are named TX1 and TX2. Does anyone know when these will be brought onto the marketplace?

If you want to try for the smallest possible grip then there are two additional steps that make a huge difference. The first is to cut away excess material in the plastic or metal grip behind the trigger. This is the large section of material that lies directly in front of the trigger bow. A short trigger finger often gets caught on the square corner. Secondly cut away the bottom part of the grip and mainspring housing to make a bobbed grip. It is amazing to feel how much of a difference these two mods make. I can send pictures when I am back from my trip next week.

I recently filled 3 x 5mm diameter hybrid holes in 2 Trubor bull barrels. The holes were then tapped for 6mm bolts.
Then I placed two bullets down each barrel to cover the base of the holes.
With JBL steel reinforced epoxy filling the holes and the threads of the bolts, I tightened each bolt until they touched the bullets, then backed off one quarter of a turn.
After 24 hours of hardening I milled off the protruding bolts and took out the bullets.
The end result was a much better shooting experience as I found that the removal of the hybrids made for a better and less 'wiggly' initial part of the recoil cycle.
My long distance accuracy shots improved and the recoil difference was minimal. The gas volume increase also cleaned the compensator ports more.
So far there has been no movement of the bolts.
In hindsight I would also consider using a longer bolt with a non threaded portion near the head. One could then cut the bolt so that it binds at the top of the hybrid hole.
Jim

Does anyone have first hand knowledge of the shooting differences between a full diameter bull barrel and hybrid compensator vs a thin sized barrel and a cone compensator?
Obviously the second option should be lighter. I will be using a 5" barrel in a cut down slide in 9x23.
The reason for asking is to determine whether it will be worthwhile to turn down a bull barrel and use a cone compensator.
Thanks.